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I discovered Metallica in the mid 90s as a teenager. Of course they were famous in Eastern Europe, after the dictatorial regimes fell everybody was exploring the new found freedom and catching up with the West, there were tons of metalheads, hippies, "depeche"-ists, etc. But I could not hear Metallica anywhere, until cable television finally arrived in my town too and they had MTV. When the first single from Load hit the screens, I was hoocked - it was "Until it Sleeps". I had no idea what their old stuff sounded like, and I had no clue about metal in general, so I liked the songs from the Load-Reload era a lot. They were excellent pieces of mainstream music of that time. When I started going out in town with the rockers and drink vodka in lousy bars, I would hear "One" or "Master Of Puppets" once in a while, and they were awesome, but since most people in the East had discovered metal because of the fall of Communism in 1989, everyone was big on the "Black Album" - the album that came out at that moment in time. Only a small elite of metalheads were really experts and had a good knowledge of 80s metal (and discs to listen to). So I only got acquainted with their thrash period in the 2000s, when I also got the habit of listening to full albums instead of only listening to the TV singles. Right now I'd rate higher the 80s albums (especially Justice and Master), but I still like Black/Load/Reload/S&M. At least I think so, I didn't listen to any Metallica in years.
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